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New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning is no spring chicken. Although it feels like just yesterday when Big Blue acquired him from the San Diego Chargers on draft day, Manning is now 31-years-old and just completed his ninth NFL season. With time slowly ticking away, the now elite veteran finds himself extremely disappointed with the way the 2012 season ended for the Giants, and how they let the chance at repeating slip away.

"In my nine years here, I’ve seen talented teams and have been on teams that weren’t as talented. We were able to get by with some things and win games, but we felt that we have talent, we have playmakers, we’ve got guys who get it, who understand what it takes to win, and play at a high level," Manning said. "To waste that opportunity is disappointing."

It wasn't just wasting talent that has Manning upset, but wasting the rare opportunity for a championship. After nine years in the NFL, he understands how difficult it is to assemble a team capable of winning a Super Bowl, and how much harder it is to actually hoist the Lombardi. And with opportunities so few and far between, letting this one slip away doesn't sit well.

“It’s that we felt, or I felt, that we had great talent on this team,” Manning said. “When you have talent, and you have the guys who are committed, focused, and want to be good, and it’s important to them, you hate to waste those opportunities. Because you just don’t know how many times you are ready to win a championship and you have everything in place.”

Manning's comments reflect those of General Manager Jerry Reese, who said on Monday no one "gets paid for go 9-7."

“We don’t get paid here for the Giants to go 9-7,’’ Reese said. “We got away with that last year, things worked out for us, but we don’t go into our season saying, ‘Man, let’s go 9-7.’"

Prior to the start of the 2012 season, Manning expressed the dire need for the Giants to win more than nine games. He suggested they got lucky in previous years making it into the playoffs with such records, and tried hammer home how important it would be to win at least 10 in 2012. In the end, he turned out to be absolutely correct, and it's undoubtedly something he will remind the players next year when they gather at the start of veteran mini-camp.

What do you mean? Of course he will be tendered. All it means is that we have the right to match any offer, and if we decline to match the offer, we get a first round pick. If no team makes an offer, he comes back for 1 year, 2.75 million. This, of course, happens only if we can’t reach an agreement on an extension with him first.

I think it’s two-fold: 1, tendering him allows him to shop and run up his price, and 2, sends a message that he’s not paramount to what we’re trying to do here. I think for those reasons, especially #1 which could put an astronomical price on him, Reese signs him early (and is why they were trying to deal during the season)

A bonus reason is that the higher the deal for Cruz, the higher the deal will be for Nicks, so Reese needs to do all he can to keep that number down.

Of course an extension is the priority, and the best option. But if we don’t reach an extension soon, which is a distinct possibility, it would be stupid not to tender him, because we wouldn’t then have the option to match any offer, not to mention the ability to get a 1st rounder if he leaves.

I agree 100% with Dirt. Giants wont tender him. They will work out a long term deal with him first. If they tender him they run the chance that some WR desperate CRAZY owner like a Snyder, Johnson or a Jones offers him way more than we can match and we lose him for just a first rd pick. Then we have to wait a year or two for said new WR to learn system

Consider this: what if we don’t sign him to an extension before FA starts? What then? We don’t tender him, lose the ability to match any offer, and lose him for nothing to a desperate team? Or we do tender him, have the ability to match any offer, and receive a first round pick if a desperate team offers him too much?

Which do you think is the better option? I’m in favor of the second, which I think is the obvious choice.

Obviously if they don’t resign him before FA they will tender him the highest tender… I believe they will have him locked up long before then. Waiting and tendering him is rolling the dice that some crazy azz owner doesn’t throw a boatload of many at him..

I think a strategy I’d like to see is setting the bar higher. “We need to win at least 10″ isn’t a really lofty goal for such a talented team.

I’d like to see “Next year our goal, with this talented, veteran team who knows how tough it is to win, we’re looking to secure home field in the playoffs to get the best path possible to another championship. It’s not just about winning our division, it’s about needing to play our best football every single week and winning as many games as we can.”

That type of attitude removes complacency and general lack of urgency about losing games. That type of attitude makes you ice cold.

I found the 2007 Patriots attitude so awesome. Like “we’re going out to murder every team and we’re going to be the best ever.” They fell 3 points short to a better team, but their attitude won them 18 straight games, many in dominating fashion.

Apparently Tuck has put all of his woe is me I’m going to be retiring talk behind him for now. Not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand I have a lot of respect for the man, he was a great player before his injury problems and has done a lot for the organization and he is certainly a very intelligent player…However, his play for the last two years has been sub-par and much more importantly his attitude and demeanor have been very unbecoming of a Captain in my opinion. For what it’s worth I wouldn’t mind him playing out his deal, but personally I’d love to see the C on Antrel Rolle’s chest next year.

Just out of curiosity, any of you think there are any realistic options for Defensive Caption besides Tuck and Rolle?

I know that the Giants wouldn’t try and oust Tuck from his Captaincy in a coup nor should they, what I hope for is that one of two scenarios plays out. A) Tuck is a smart guy and he comes to the realization that he is not doing himself or the team any favors by remaining captain. He sees that he is not what the Defense needs in that position and he steps down gracefully on his own, making way for someone else (hopefully Rolle who I believe can lead both with his play and his mouth and who can hold players accountable when things aren’t working) to assume the Captain position. Or B) if Tuck doesn’t come to this realization on his own, Coach sits him down and lays some hot pillow talk on him vis-a-vis him being Captain not a good fit for team blah blah blah, and this persuades him to step down and is kept between the two of them. A guy can hope right?

Honestly I feel like being Captain is a huge distraction for Tuck. Being the sort of loud emotional leader Captains are expected to be does not seem to come naturally to him. I think it is something he has to work at and kind of like an act he puts on for the benefit of others. I think he is keenly aware of the added expectations being Captain puts on him, and it adds a lot of stress to his life during the season. Who knows, maybe if he didn’t have to worry about the added duties of being a Captain he could focus more on honing his craft and return to playing his position at a level more in keeping with what he obviously expects from himself. At the very least I think not being Captain would remove some stress from him, (stress is obviously something he has a hard time shrugging off) and allow him to play in a better mental state.

I watched a very interesting piece with Chirs Carter last weekend which bought me back to something FF55Yrs and I were discussing a few years ago.. In 17 seasons as a head Coach Tom Coughlin has only had one team win more than 13 games and that was his 14-2 Jaguars. While he seemingly ALWAYS churns out winning season, he rarely ever has dominating ones. Carter pointed out that Tom Coughlin is one of the most demanding coaches in the NFL and wears out players both physically but more so mentally with all the mental preparation he demands. This would explain why the giants come screaming out of the gate every single season, as they are always in better shape and more prepared then their opponents but by week 9-10 every season seem to be drained and banged up all to hell. I posted something similar a few seasons ago with Coughlin’s first half and second half records both in Jax and NY. In 07 the team caught a boost from 6-8 rookies pressed into service late in the season like Ross, Braddie, Smith, Boss and Alford and last year it seemed like the entire team got healthy just in time to gel and catch fire. I’m thinking Coughlin’s hesitance to play rookies early also may wear down the vets throughout the year..

I think that we’re also very good at strategy … but less so at tactics. The strategy works, and we’re successful. But the other guys get paid too … and they devise counter-strategies. Where we have a problem is that we’re not quick to change to handle their moves. So we go into a lull (November) as we slooooowly work out the answer … hopefully in time for the playoffs.

I want to add that I am in no way slamming Coughlin as I am and always have been the biggest Tom Coughlin supporter on this site. Just pointing out that while he is one of the 3 best coaches in the NFL, he is not perfect and this aspect of his coaching strategy may need to be looked at by himself and his staff.. It is great to start out 6-2 every single year but not if it means he wears out the vets and has them running on fumes down the stretch. This is another reason I am hoping the team gets significantly younger this off season. The younger players need to be worked in earlier and more often to take a burden ff the vets.

Ahmad Bradshaw isn’t convinced that he will be back with the Giants on his scheduled $3.75 million salary for 2013.

“It’s a great opportunity to see these faces,” Bradshaw said after cleaning out his locker. “You never know who’s gonna be back next season, including me.” Explosive 2012 first-rounder David Wilson came on strong late in the season and should be better acclimated to pass protection with an offseason of practices. The oft-injured Bradshaw could be viewed as a luxury rather than a necessity at nearly $4 million. ——————– I still think Bradshaw should be back, as $3.75 million is not that much for a 1000 yard, 4.6 YPC back. We could have another ‘earth, wind, fire’ combo with Brown, Bradshaw, and Wilson.

With late round picks like Morris and UDFA like Foster tearing up the league, it is hard to justify paying that much money to a guy that isnt going to be feature back. Especially when you have so many other needs and guys needing to get paid. RB is the easiest and cheapest position to fill through the draft

A close friend of mine who works in the 49er front office under Tom Gamble and Trent Baalke has also spent 8 years prior under the great Ted Thompson. I sent him a text telling him if Ross and Gettleman move on he needs to throw his name in the hat to come work for the Geemen.. One can dream…

Look at the history. When Jacobs was in a similar situation he restructured his contract. I expect Bradshaw to do the same. If we’re going to drop $6 or 7 big ones each on Snee, Canty and Webster then Bradshaw is a stone bargain at half that.